The Peak - November 2024

Monthly News from the Wachusett Regional School District

Wachusett student, Terrance Fencher, began making creatures out of pipe cleaners at around the age of five. Over the years, his talent for creating these captivating and unique works of art has flourished and his remarkable creations were recently featured in a solo art gallery displayed at the school. In addition to working in this medium, Terrance is an avid YouTube content creator. He plans to continue producing artwork and sharing it on his YouTube channel.

Amazing work, Terrance!

Chocksett students in grades 6-8 had a blast at the the school's Fall Harvest Dance. The event, filled with music and singalongs, was run by the Student Council. The Chocksett cafeteria was transformed into a night club as students - and even staff - danced and sang the night away. The Student Council looks forward to having more events like this throughout the year.

Fifth graders in Mrs. Gendron's class created mold terrariums in order to study how mold grows and affects the decomposition of rotting organic matter. Students observed daily changes to their.. stuff over the course of a week. They also varied their experiments by changing one variable in each group such as adding salt to the terrarium or storing it on the heater.

Kind of gross, to be honest, but also pretty cool.

Last week, fourth graders learned about the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We spent the week listening to the story, learning about the history of the parade, and participating in a STEM challenge. Our challenge was to devise a device that could hold a latex-free balloon upright since the parade committee "forgot" to order enough helium for the balloons.

Students worked individually to create the device out of 5 popsicle sticks, 6 straws, construction paper, and as much tape as they needed. Once the device was created, they could decorate their balloons. We capped our week off with a parade in front of the entire school. We marched outside led by music! It was great to hear the crowd cheering for us and to see the smiles on the 4th graders!

- Principal, Joy Wilde

October marked international AAC Awareness Month, a month dedicated to raising public awareness for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). Central Tree Middle School administrators, staff, and students learned about the importance of AAC and modeled number of its practices.

• Mr. C delivered his morning, school-wide announcements using a speech-generating device.
• Mrs. Greene interacted with students using an AAC app & her non-verbal communication skills.
• Staff modeled various communication strategies across multiple tools and settings.

#AACaware24

Grade 2 Students at Houghton Elementary School helped with the final stages of fall work on the outside garden area. Students worked together to up the area and plant plant various bulbs so the garden will have flowers in the spring. They're also in the process of creating sigs to identify the different areas of the garden.

Great job Grade 2!

Mountview 7th graders in Engineering and Technology (ETECH) combined principles of engineering with empathy as they designed Ankle Foot Orthoses for a tween (9-12 yrs old) with cerebral palsy. This project not only allowed students to explore the Engineering Design Process but also gave them a real-life problem to solve. Students learned about cerebral palsy from engineering experts worldwide and doctors from the Mayo Clinic. They also had the opportunity to hear from a classmate with CP who described her own experiences of wearing an orthosis and having numerous surgeries. The students did an amazing job learning, designing, building, testing, evaluating, and presenting with a Red Carpet Event to show off their designs (pictured). Solving problems through engineering while gaining an understanding of how this type of work can improve peoples' lives was a powerful experience for all involved.

Student Council Officers helped to pack up and deliver food donations to the Wachusett Food Pantry. Both Houghton and Chocksett school collected non-perishable food and baby wipes/diapers to bring to the Food Pantry before the Thanksgiving holiday commenced. The Student Council hopes to make another donation before the next holiday season.

Paxton Center School Student Council members and advisors also collected delivered the donations to the Wachusett Food Pantry. PCS donated 1,500 items which pantry works said was the largest donation so far this year! Way to go, PCS Nation!

Congratulations to the ten Mountview Middle School students who attended the Model United Nations Conference at Northeastern University in November. Mountview's delegates spent the day with 600 other middle school students from all over New England, debating issues related to climate change.

Great job, Mustangs!!

To prepare for Thanksgiving, the Davis Hill fourth graders spent a day turning piles and piles of donated recyclables into amazing turkeys! Through collaboration, teamwork, and creativity, they built unique themed masterpieces.

This decade long tradition is a close second only to the century old Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

This month, Glenwood Elementary School celebrated Underground Spirit Week. Teachers and dressed up in mysterious costumes and students had to guess the theme for the day. Themes were Mixed Up Holidays, Neon, Tacky Tourists, Animal Print, and Anything But a Water Bottle.

If you're wondering what that last theme means, you're not alone. We just print what they send us.

Thomas Prince ushered in Thanksgiving break with our version of the Macy’s Day Parade. Students read “Balloons over Broadway” by Melissa Sweet and then teamed up across grade levels to create their balloon floats. Our older students partnered with the younger ones to create the wonderful parade and then served as the parade audience. It was a great community-building experience and one of the things that is wonderful about having a K-8 school. The students had a fun time working together and the results were phenomenal!

- Principal, Ace Thompson

After an introduction to the 13 British Colonies settled in North America, students in Mrs. Baird's 5th grade class were asked to become experts in one of the three Colonial regions - the New England Colonies, Middle Colonies, or Southern Colonies. They were required to demonstrate their knowledge of the colonists' reasons for settling in the region, the climate, the geography, the role religion played in their lives, and their economic interests. To demonstrate their expertise, students were given the option to write a song, create art or a 3D model accompanied by a poster, design a slideshow presentation, or create a virtual Minecraft world of their region.

Here's one student's outstanding Minecraft project: